Spitfire – Denial To Fall (No Remorse Records)

Rather unsurprisingly, there have been several bands called Spitfire over the years and this most stirring of names is surely suited for full on, heavy metal bands! This version of Spitfire is from Athens, Greece and was formed way back in 1984 with the debut release coming out in 1987. Sadly, the band has had a few serious setbacks over the years which has led to several periods of inactivity and even seen a name change to Speedfire in the early 1990s. In many ways the retirement of the original singer Dinos Costakis through injuries sustained in a serious car accident caused cataclysmic damage to the band and since then they have released a live album in 1990 with a new studio album, Die Fighting, coming out in 2009 and now we finally have the band’s third studio album, Denial To Fall, some thirteen years since the last record.

Sadly, Costakis passed away in 2016 with the original bassist Thanos Kremidas also passing in 2011 and the replacement bassist on the live album, Fotis Anagnostou, also left us in 2021 so the band has seen far more than its fair share of tragedy. Because of this, the latest version of Spitfire is pretty much a new band although guitarist Elias Logginidis does remain from the original crew. This now makes the new team Tassos Krokodilos on vocals, Panos Hatziioannidis alongside Logginidis on guitar, Nikos Michalakakos on bass and Nick Adams on drums with George Aspiotis guesting on keyboards.

The music has remained relatively constant though throughout the change with Spitfire being a classic sounding heavy metal band built on ’70s and ’80s rock with influences from the usual bands in Accept, Judas Priest, Saxon and Helloween so if you like stirring metal that is delivered with great force and authority then you will find much to please on Denial To Fall. The songs are all roughly in the 4 to 6-minute range and are well written and perfectly delivered with great vocals and plenty of thrilling guitars and more than enough individuality and self identity to be far more than just a mere Judas Priest derived metal band.

Give it a listen and I’m sure you will be suitably impressed.